Algernon Heber-Percy was a lieutenant in the Shropshire Yeomanry, and served as aide-de-camp to the Governor of Queensland, private secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor of British New Guinea, and was Hereditary Seneschal of Montgomery Castle.

[1][2] Early work included acting as a Hollywood extra, serving in a Lyons' Corner House – which ended after he spilled soup on a customer – and helping to run a nightclub.

[1] Heber-Percy's main occupation was running – "with supreme efficiency" – the Faringdon House estate in Oxfordshire, owned by Lord Berners.

Heber-Percy constructed follies and built "a swimming pool reached by high steps and overlooked by giant gryphons", with a changing room the floor of which "was inlaid with pennies".

[1][6] As a sideline, he and a carpenter friend went into business as undertakers; he was particularly fond of the company's annual conferences, as they "invariably provided him with a fund of good stories".